Music Matters: Savannah Party Starters resurrecting the best of indie electronica

Savannah Party Starters combines the PR, record spinning and social skills of Anita Narcisse (PR/promotions/booking), Josh Banks (technical manager, founder/DJ) and Katherine Stearns (finance/design) to bring electronic dance music back to the forefront in Savannah.

Josh and Anita crossed paths one night after Josh had just moved back to Savannah and “struck up a conversation about how amazing the EDM (electronic dance music) scene here used to be. We wanted to try to further the DJ culture in Savannah and create events where people could dance and get into underground and indie electronic music.”

Since officially forming in February, the group has become a full-service event business, including not only DJs but also photographers, videographers and street team promoters. To get the ball rolling, they teamed up with DJ bathsh3ba and Ede Gee at The Wormhole for a monthly EDM night every first Friday because we “agreed that there needed to be a place where everyone could get into current EDM and have a great time.”

But it’s more than just organizing good times. They also aim “to promote local EDM DJs/producers that actually have a lot of skill at mixing tracks together, and producing quality music.” Collaborating with talented people has been a key to their success, such as working with DaxExclamationPoint on their branding and logo.

“Dax is a very well-known personality from Atlanta and is also known for his design work for ‘Overthrow,’ an EDM collective up there. Dax became our lead designer and has since done some of our more recent flyers.”

Their biggest challenge has also become their proudest accomplishment: “As a group, we’ve overcome the obstacle of starting an EDM music scene in Savannah again that has been long overdue!” They are quick to credit this feat as being made possible by joining forces with “all the other DJs on board” — like Grisly Addams, Ian Grover, ITSBANK5, SKRUBZ, Escape, Magna and more — “and we set off to tackle what we at first felt like was the impossible.”

And business is booming.

“The response to what we want to do has been so overwhelming. We’re making excellent progress and we believe the long-term looks pretty promising. More and more people are coming out with each show.

“Playing Square Fest was a dream come true for Josh (who played alongside Ian Grover at the event). One of the first things he said to Anita was, ‘I want to play Forsyth Park.’ Low and behold she came across an opportunity for that to happen.”

Yet, even more satisfying was the opportunity to expose the 2,000-plus people of all ages and interests at the recent inaugural Square Fest to EDM.

“Anita ran into someone the next day who said, ‘I’m 50 years old and when I saw DJs on stage, I said, you gotta be kidding me! But you guys did a great job and blew me away! I’m now a fan.’ To be able to actually turn people on to the sound we want to push is an incredible feeling — it makes you feel vindicated.”

They believe that Square Fest was a perfect example of what Savannah’s music scene needs more of.

“I think we’re making progress, but we’ve got a long way to grow! We need to have more 18-plus venues that are willing to work with us to be a more campus-friendly city. Also, more venues that allow all-ages events; kids need more positive things to do!”

To help accomplish this goal, they are hosting what they hope to be the first of many family-friendly events at Woody’s Skate Park on Sept. 15.

“We’re going to be grilling out. ... We have SKRUBZ, ITSBANKS, Grisly Addams, Serch and Escape doing a tag-team set that we’re really excited about! Serch and Escape are both veteran Savannah DJs, so it’s going to awesome to see them at it together again.”

Ultimately with any Savannah Party Starters event, they hope to “reach a wide variety of people, to turn them on and show them that EDM is a kind of music that can be loved by many people.”